Description
The ERNACT network of regions have been very successful over the past number of years in assembling a portfolio of European projects that enables member locations to jointly address the challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation technologies.
The footprint of the network has also been expanded to include a number of new regions and cities, including South Ostrobothnia (Finland) and the City of Ljubljana (Slovenia).
This is against a backdrop where the ever-accelerating development, diffusion and combination of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Internet of Things - built on top of high speed broadband networks in urban and rural areas - is fast reaching a point where it is impacting the regional development potential of European rural areas and cities.
The ERNACT network of regions are of the view that the time is right to debate how this "hyper-digitization" is impacting on different of aspects of regional development - including innovation, job creation, public service delivery - as well as the societal wellbeing.
The representatives from the ERNACT regions will meet in the Office of the Northern Ireland Executive in Brussels, where they will be joined by staff from their Brussels Offices and by guest speakers from the European Commission.
In addition to agreeing transnational and interregional project priorities for the next 12 months, the network aims to agree deeper and longer term goals to ensure that the ERNACT regions take full advantage of the unfolding digital fault/shift.
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